Wing Redesign Continues - New Trailing Edge And Reinforcements For The Rockhopper - Episode 8

[@TheProjectCave]

Congratulations on the instrument rating! Like the caulk gun mod and the sandwich bag dispenser! Looking forward to seeing it continue to come together!

[@JimDieckow]

Glad to see the progress of both you an the Hopper!!

[@JeffGillis1]

VFR plus IFR Congratulations Ian. Your Rock-Hopper is looking great. Looking forward to you next videos.

[@sthomas1018]

Good luck on your instrument checkride!

[@MrEveningflight]

Good progress! Hope to see the next episode soon👍

[@Conn653]

This suggestion might help on the other wing. Instead of riveting metal to wood, add a backer plate on the opposite side of the wood. Thus the wood would be between 2 pieces of metal giving the rivets something stronger to hold into than wood on metal alone. I wouldn't want the rivets to "pull through" the wood. The backer plate would need to be the size of a flange on your 45° brace. It would add a bit of weight but safety is my cincern.

[@ianslife210]

We considered that as an option. We’re also adding fiberglass wrapping around the trailing edge from the cap strips as additional support so I can’t imagine us managing to pull anything loose. It’s already amazingly rigid as is.

[@charrison3419]

Awesome, keep them coming.

[@orvjudd1383]

Ian , FYI you should use an alcohol wipe for final cleaning prior to gluing wood to aluminum

[@danieldrinkwalter2393]

Very cool vid; interesting seeing how you problem solve with triangular corner brace to strengthen the trailing edge, and gave yourself an excuse to buy a tool all at once...;-) I must have a reason to buy a dimple dye set, right...! Hmmmm!

[@duncanclausen8906]

Loving the build. My 2 cents worth re: your ribs (I know it is a work in progress) as a builder of plywood boats, I would epoxy a glass tape over the butt joins on either side of the ribs.

[@ianslife210]

That was our original plan but I wanted to have an EAA technical counselor look over our methodology and make recommendations and his was to scarf the joints with thinner ply on both sides. We may do that just to stay closer to accepted methodology.

[@johanhelberglongbowsknifes1185]

HI IS THE RIBS WOOD OR ALUMINUM? AWESOME BUILD AND INFO THANKS FOR YOUR TIME TO DO THE VIDEOS. I AM FROM SOUTH AFRICA AND MY DREAM IS TO BUILD MY OWN STOL AIRCRAFT BUSH PLANE.

[@jesondag]

As much woodworking and metal working, as I've done in my life, and knowing the strength of thin plywood, and more importantly the strength of edge to edge glue joints on plywood, there is no way I would fly in this thing. I just hope it's stronger than it seems, for the sake of you and your loved ones.

[@ianslife210]

Oh don’t worry, it will be heavily reinforced, we just haven’t done it yet. I actually have a tech advisor stopping in tomorrow to approve our methods for that exact part.

[@jesondag]

@@ianslife210 That's good to hear. I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

[@scotabot7826]

@@ianslife210 Please make sure your tech advisor is the real deal! A actual engineer who can do stress analysis ect... You are changing so much of the design and treading into unknown areas, it's a little concerning. Your adding a lot of chord and camber to the wing, so I hope the original light weight tubular spars will handle the load (that they were not designed for) with a additional ultimate load figure for safety. I don't know man, seems like your just assuming way to much here. I mean, you wouldn't take a Cessna 150 wing and put it on a 172, and expect it to carry the same loading and remain safe!

[@ianslife210]

Please understand there’s no way to show the hours of time spent making sure that the numbers work and the plane will be safe.We have looked into all of these items and satisfied ourselves that we have a solid safety margin and as I’ve mentioned before the aircraft will pass a rigorous static stress test to full load prior to flight.

[@greenalan12]

Just wondering the other day when the next update would be!! How did your instrument check-ride go?! Excited to see the update, can’t wait to see this things maiden rock hop!!

[@jarenbelrose1552]

I don’t see a video detailing what kind of performance you ended up getting out of all the mods. Your work looks awesome though!

[@avintures_id2249]

hi, always love to watch your video. i'm wondering how much the weight of each wing assembly before covered, and the fuselage weight after you did modify it. could you make a video weighing them or please just simply reply this comment instead. thank you

[@ianslife210]

The wings will get a comparison weight. I have the second unmodified wing that I will weigh before I strip it down. The fuselage is a bit more interesting and I’ll save that for a video rather than spoiling it here so stay tuned!

[@avintures_id2249]

IansLife thank you mate 👍🏿👍🏿

[@russellesimonetta3835]

I,d have used an aluminum backer plate to make those gusset plates stronger. Riveting to the back of the wood seems like a weak point!

[@ianslife210]

I don’t believe we specifically showed it but the rivets are placed with the head side on the wood, not the tail. I think that may not have come across but we have plenty of surface area on the wood side.

[@alanswanson1952]

How does the chord of the wing copar to a standard kitfox?

[@ianslife210]

Compared to the model B avid it was based o it’ll be close to a foot deeper including control surfaces. I haven’t compared it to a late model Kitfox. When I finish off the surfaces I’ll take final measurements and post comparisons for length, chord and area to similar aircraft.

[@greenalan12]

Just wondering the other day when the next update would be!! How did your instrument check-ride go?! Excited to see the update, can’t wait to see this things maiden rock hop!!

[@ianslife210]

It went good! One more rating in the bag.